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TipsForSuccess: New Ideas vs. Old Ideas

New Ideas vs. Old Ideas

George was tired of being broke.

Every day was a struggle. "How will I pay my bills? I'm going deeper into debt. I can't afford to buy anything."

So George constantly worked on new ways to make money. "If I could invent a new telephone, all my money problems would be over." "Maybe I could sell funny hats on the Internet." "If I found some investors, I could open a new underwater restaurant."

George had tried a few ideas, such as manufacturing a razor blade that never got dull, building the world's largest tree swing and a selling lamps made of salt. All his new ventures had failed. To survive, he had to work at McDonald's as an assistant manager.

Like most people, George felt he should solve his money problems with new ideas. This idea is almost always wrong.

You enjoy affluence, not from new ideas, but from things that have already worked.

George decides to try out this approach. He asks himself, "What has made me money in the past?" He lists the following:

* Selling shoes at a store paid $350 per week.

* Selling sunglasses at festivals paid $1000 for one weekend.

* Buying old cars, fixing them up and selling them. The last one, an old Ford Mustang, earned $1500 profit with two weeks of work.

* Working at McDonald's pays $560 per week.

George realizes he can go back to his two best jobs immediately. He convinces the sunglass company to give him 200 pairs on credit so he can sell them at a flea market show that weekend. Meanwhile, he finds a wrecked 1988 Mercedes and makes a deal to buy it for $500. George then persuades the seller to wait for one month for payment.

George quits his McDonald's job. He makes $800 selling sunglasses that weekend. He spends three weeks on the Mercedes. After George fixes the car and cleans it up, the seller decides to buy it back for $4500.

George uses old, proven ideas to boost his income.

Business Uses

When a business sticks to proven ideas, and avoids untried methods, it usually succeeds.

For example, the owner of a popular Chinese restaurant says, "I want to try something new! Let's add Mexican food to the menu. I like Mexican food and I think everyone will like having the choice." Unfortunately, the smell of Mexican food does not mix well with the smell of Chinese food. The restaurant is soon empty. As soon as the owner goes back to the successful formula of providing Chinese food alone, the restaurant fills up again.

Smart business owners and executives also find ways to expand past, proven ideas to make even more money.

For example, the owner of an auto dealership notices his new car sales are dropping. His marketing director says, "We need a new TV commercial. Let's use elephants! We've never tried it before. It'll be great!"

The smart owner says, "Find which of our old commercials worked best. What made our sales jump up?"

The marketing director comes back the next day and says, "I hate to tell you this, but our best TV commercial was from two years ago. It's the commercial that shows you wearing diapers and crying. You swore to never show that commercial again."

The owner says, "Show it again! In fact, run it twice as much. And schedule the film crew to come to make another one. I'm really going to cry this time!"

New car sales jump to new levels.

Doing things that won is essential to good business.

Copying Ideas

If you do not have anything that has made you succeed in the past, you must still avoid new ideas. Do things that won for others.

For example, you want a career helping people and making a decent income. You write down the careers of everyone you know. You realize your uncle Jay, who is a dentist, helps a lot of people and makes an excellent income. You take your uncle to lunch and ask how he became a successful dentist.

As another example, you want a successful marriage and family. You find who has been happily married for a long time and has a successful family. You learn all you can about what helped them succeed and then copy their ideas.

If you want to succeed in any kind of job or business, interview the people who are succeeding. Find out what has won for them. Use those ideas as they are proven, not untried as yet. Luckily, most successful people enjoy talking about their success secrets and do not worry about competition.

For example, you get a job selling insurance. You find out who has the best sales and buy each of them dinner during your first week on the job. You take notes of everything they did right. You then copy their actions as closely as possible. Some of these top sales people even help you out with some prospects. Within a month, you are making a good income.

If you want a big source of income, you do not copy the actions of people who are broke. You copy the actions of high-income producers, especially if you agree with their methods and purposes.

As a final example, you decide to start a new software company. Before you start, you find out who owns successful software companies and read everything you can about them. You meet with any of the owners or managers who will talk to you about their success. Even though they are very busy, they feel flattered. They may have learned from other experts as well and want to help new entrepreneurs, so they give you several hours of time. You learn exactly what they did and copy it. Your new company prospers.

Doing things that won for you or others is a safe route to success. If you want to try new things, only do so AFTER you are succeeding with ideas and methods that you or others have already proven to be successful in the real world.

Recommendations

1. Make a list of income ideas that worked for you in the past or present.

2. Make a list of income ideas that worked for others in the past or present.

3. Next to each item on both lists, write down how you can make each of these ideas work for you now.

4. Do these things and nothing else.

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